Teamwork - a new idea for Columbus

But first

From what I have been told Alice Schmidt makes some pretty darn good homemade soup.

Also - the first person to contact me will "win" two tickets to this event donated by Dale and Kris.

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As for the 4-lane deal. I'm just going to see what develops on this one. The parties now know that there is some disagreement with the project so let's just let things come out in the open as they will need too.
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I have been in contact with Craig Gerritsen the GM of Vita Plus and we are looking into some sort of road trip/tour of the Vita Plus facilities. After all they do feed all of the Clydesdale's (well, most of them I guess). To be honest I do not have a clue what they do besides some sort of grain stuff. Anyone interested? Must I go all by myself? He is looking for something near future and no dates have been mentioned yet.

And sorry - you can not not take the Amtrak to the destination. I just took this a few weeks ago.

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I attended the Columbus Community Development Authority meeting last night and our new Mayor was a no show, hmmmmm not the greatest start. If I was Mayor (which I never ever want to be) I would attend ALL meetings as soon as I could to get a handle on things. I guess he does not feel the need to understand the teams that surround him.

I'm giving him a chance to change my mind - honest but when you say you are going to be somewhere you really should be there. I was all pumped up. I'll have to put my suit away for another day.

**Note - It seems he was invited but had to attend a birthday party. OK FINE - off the hook this time.

ANYWAY - I came away from the meeting feeling much better and in more of a positive mood then the last few days. It's weird but I feel like many of the organizations are in a rebooting stage. Like everyone is in a "let's start over" mode.

I feel so good I must post a cute donkey photo!

Back on topic:

The CDA is one of my more favorite groups to listen too because they remind me of SIM CITY decisions. I can understand SOME of the things going on but still am unsure of TIF which I believe is Tax Incrementing Financing**? If it is it's a tool that was not used in SIM CITY.

** TIF is a tool to use future gains in taxes to finance the current improvements that will create those gains.

SO - In no particular order some news from several committees I have attended lately. The new grocery store plan is moving ahead but slowly. However - my view and a few other people have noticed that Pic-N-Save has gotten much better.

There are a few restaurants looking into Columbus but I'm afraid the Red Bud Hamburger Joint (my name) might fall through because of the need for a $15,000 to $20,000 ventilation system for the grill. Main Street was prepared to pay for SOME of that (it's their building) but not ALL.

The funny thing is that the Popcorn Wagon MUST stay in that building. Even if a Tattoo Parlor decided to rent the place (God help us) it will have to house the Popcorn Wagon. It's the rule.

There is a little business buzz coming from other towns (Green Bay for one) when they heard that the CDA had an outstanding success with their business appreciation luncheon (which I won an award and then was almost arrested and gunned down in cold blood).

But I'm boring myself with old news -

Just because our new Mayor has a "anti-growth lets survive and not thrive" mentality does not mean we're (I include myself in the "we're" for the sake of ease in typing) going to sit around and put our collective heads in the sand looking for some trace if sanity.

NO! - remember this plan?

She ain't dead yet Jim.

It seems the male portion of the train depot is becoming available along with all the parking and so forth. Their is a plan on the table to purchase this area and surrounding parking and if so it does not take a rocket scientists to know that the smart thing to do is to develop this into a corridor for people to get into Columbus.

Now of course this is a challenge as the Mayor is against development, at least until we get the pot holes fixed and leaves picked up. So how can one group accomplish this task? One group can't.

There is the rub. It seems for the past (fill in some sort of time estimate here) _______ all the groups that are worried about Columbus have been doing their own thing. And how has that worked out for them?? Not well. WHAT IF!!!

We all know that each group has their own personality, just like sports team with players all different. However, that does not mean the different personality's can not work together for one goal.

What if they all worked together to achieve one goal! Weird concept what? Strength in numbers.

From what I have seen there seems to be a small current of electricity in the air from members in the groups and many of the silent majority (or minority - whichever) towns people. All we have to do is start to harness that energy. Put all of those electrons together and maybe we can get a spark.

It will take work and time but its better then treading water which it sounds like people have been doing for the last 15 years. The owners of the downtown businesses are a problem with their "let's just survive" attitude but, hey it seems the average age of many downtown businesses is like 85 or something, need I say more.

Boyd mentioned that Columbus does not understand tourism which I agree with BUT, I can see WHY it does not understand it. Because it's new!

One of the first things DJ tried to do when we moved here was to go shopping after work for a birthday present for her dad. Everything was closed by 5:00. So we drove to Beaver Dam to go shopping.

That's OK - it will change. Get one store to be open and make money and others will follow (unless it's 6:00 bedtime).

Then something I have been pushing ever since the very first time I sat down with what were then strangers and they asked "what can we do" I said you guys REALLY need to advertise more. You need signs telling people there is a town here and that by not turning off the highway you are missing something.

Not big gaudy signs pointing at a stupid truck stop or McDonald's but something that's says the people of this town are proud of their town.

It was suggested we place a BIG monument style structure (not unlike the St. Louis Arch but bigger) that shows we are proud. I wish I knew where they were talking about but . . . I don't.

Mayor Link said he wants to run Columbus more like a business which is fine but I'd rather he ran it more like a small town. Still if he does run it like a business what is the most important element for the success for a business? Advertising. And it is advertising that is nonexistent in Columbus. Will he in fact run Columbus like a business and increase the advertising budget?

It does not matter if you have the greatest product in the world if no one knows about it. On the other hand you can produce total crap but have great advertising and be super successful. Look at Miller and Anheuser Busch! AND DO NOT GET ME STARTED WITH Millers "new" Triple Hopping! What total BS! WOW they are soooooo smart.

Well - this has been a long and boring (for most people) blog so I'll leave the subject for another day.

Have a WONDERFUL Tuesday. The weather can only get better!

Rod